ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain has directed that Wafagi Mohtasib`s report on the improvement of medical facilities at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) should be implemented.

At a meeting on Wednesday at the Aiwan-i-Sadr, the president said the report should be examined thoroughly along with reports from other concerned federal ministries and the Planning Commission for transforming Pims into a model facility.

He said because patients at the hospital exceeded its capacity, a strategy needed to be devised to provide medical care to everyone.

The meeting was attended by Barrister Usman Ibrahim, who is the minister of state for capital administration and development division; Health Minister Saira Afzal Tarar and Federal Ombudsman Salman Faroogi.

The Wafagi Mohtasib had formed a six-member committeeheaded by Syed Anwar Mehmood when the head of the cardiology ward, Dr Shahid Nawaz Malik, was shot in the hospital on February 14 by two motorcycle riders.

The shooters had fled and Dr Shahid was initially admitted to Pims but later moved to Combined Military Hospital because of the breakdown of important medico-surgical equipment including the MRI machine, CT scan and ECG.

The committee was asked to submit a report after a detailed inquiry into the matter.

According to the report, available with Dawn, it was suggested that the budget should be aligned with the workload, buildings should be renovated and a unified control system should be introduced.

Other suggestions included forming a management board chaired by the President of Pakistan, appointing an administrator and a ban on strikesin the hospital.

The report, which was sent to the president, suggested building the multi-storey Pims Towerwhose foundation stone was laid by former prime minister Shaukat Aziz almost a decade ago.

It also recommended that a chief finance officer should be appointed and that pathology and radiology services should be outsourced along with other services like laundry, catering and cleaning.

The committee observed that some 25 labs had flourished around Pims because doctors and staf f say tests at the hospital were not reliable.

It proposed that medical staff; including doctors, nurses and paramedics, should be allowed to practice privately outside the hospital and the need for a security service was stressed.

The six-member panel observed that although Pims was first meant to cater to the needs of Islamabad`s residents, it has been treating patients from other parts of Punjab, KP, AJK, Fata and even Afghanistan.

It was recommended that four other hospitals should be built in Islamabad by 2018 with a capacity of 500 beds each.